Flan Recipes

It's already the weekend, and as usual, I'm sharing with you the sweets our family has been enjoying these days. Today, to prepare a dessert with ingredients that reflect the produce of this season--oranges--I made a flan flavored with white Port wine and orange zest.

The secret to the dish lies in the trio combination of mascarpone cheese, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. Baby Aria loved the creamy, velvety texture of the flan, but her favorite part was the delicious caramel sauce. I didn't need to ask her twice if she wanted dessert!

If you saw last week's dessert recipe, you know I made a French-style pumpkin flan for my husband Lulu. He had asked me to make a flan, which in his mind meant crème caramel, but instead I made a flan pâtissier (French pie crust with pumpkin custard). I always try to keep my promises, so here's the pumpkin crème caramel, which Lulu loved.

His favorite part is the caramel at the bottom of the cup. You could serve it as is, or flip the dessert onto a plate so the caramel drips all over the "flan". I photographed it in both serving styles so you can decide which you prefer.

Three days to Thanksgiving(or four days to Black Friday, depending on your priorities )!

My husband Lulu loves it when Thanksgiving rolls around, because it's usually the time of the year when I experiment with new desserts. He often makes suggestions, and always selflessly volunteers to be the taste-tester.

His latest suggestion was a pumpkin-flavored flan. Lulu tends to forget that I was born French. A "flan pâtissier" in France is a pie crust called "pâte brisée" filled with custard made of egg yolks, milk, cream, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla beans. So that's what I made, with the addition of pumpkin, of course.

I told Lulu he would be eating flan for dessert. Once he finished it in the evening, he smiled and said: "All day long, I was looking forward to pumpkin-flavored crème caramel. I loved this French-style pumpkin custard pie, but can I have a pumpkin crème caramel tomorrow?" I hope my daughter doesn't end up so spoiled! And in case you were wondering, I am going to make the crème caramel today...

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces in 1862. The celebrations here in the Bay Area are always fun and I wanted to get in on the festivities. I love chocolate desserts, so I made a spiced chocolate flan.

I flavored the custard with Mexican chocolate, cinnamon and a small amount of cayenne pepper for a pleasant warmth at the end. Enjoy!

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve probably been inundated with news about the pending royal nuptials. And even though I already had mine years ago, I am a sucker for fairytale weddings. Food is one of the keys to an amazing event, and since banana flan ("banana cream pie" in America) is Prince William's favorite dessert, I made half a dozen of them so the 6 girls in our family can nibble while watching the wedding on TV. The recipe is pretty simple; I made puff pastrypie shells that I filled with regular custard that I filled in and topped with grilled bananas. The flavor is very similar to banana pudding, which is definitely nothing to complain about. I adapted the recipe from Chef Darren McGrady's Eating Royally. Chef McGrady was the personal chef to Prince William, Prince Harry and Lady Diana until her death in 1997.

I'm going to try my hardest to watch it live, but I’m not sure I'll be able to stay up so late. One thing I do know is that I'll be enjoying banana flan and hot tea (oh so British!) while staring at Kate Middleton's wedding gown and waiting for the couple's smooch from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.